High Tide: From Rockefeller’s Request To The Link Between Parking Tickets And Public Corruption

A roundup of corruption-related news from Dow Jones and other sources.

Bribery:

U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D., W.Va.) said on Tuesday that allegations of phone hacking by News Corp.’s U.K. division raised “serious questions” about whether the company had broken U.S. law, and urged regulators to investigate.

Meanwhile, News Corp., owner of this blog, said it was dropping its bid to acquire the 60.1% of British Sky Broadcasting GroupPLC that it doesn’t already own.

The Washington Post has a photo essay entitled “Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: What type of bribery is illegal?” A prize, in the form of our deepest respect, to the CC reader who catches the error.

Money Laundering:

Hans Bodmer, who pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and testified in the 2009 bribery trial of Frederic Bourke, was reappointed to the board of a Swiss bank that the government said he used in the criminal scheme. (Bloomberg)

Former Miss Honduras Belgica Suarez was found not guilty of money laundering despite having failed to declare $47,000 worth of cash at a border crossing. (AP)

Sanctions:

Michael Posner, the assistant secretary for human rights at the State Department, said Tuesday the U.S. is “exploring other sanctions” on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his inner circle. (AFP)

President Obama, in an interview Tuesday with the “CBS Evening News,” stopped short of demanding that Assad step down, but administration officials said he may take that step in coming days. (NYT)

Terrorism Finance:

The European Commission on Wednesday is expected to recommend that the EU sets up its own financial data analysis system, allowing it to stop transferring bulk data to the US for anti-terrorism purposes. (EU Observer)

Transparency:

Egypt will allow a television camera into court for the trials of Hosni Mubarak’s associates to placate protesters calling for more transparency. (Reuters)

General Anti-Corruption:

An Egyptian court convicted a Mubarak-era prime minister and two Cabinet ministers of corruption and sentenced them to up to 10 years in jail. (AP)

The correlation between political corruption and parking violations is statistically robust. (Forbes)

Between 1998 and 2010, official corruption was the chief cause of concern for netizens, a leading think tank said on Tuesday. (China Daily)

About Corruption Currents

Corruption Currents, The Wall Street Journal’s corruption blog, digs into the ever-present and ever-changing world of corporate corruption. It is a source of news, analysis and commentary for those who earn a living by finding corruption or by avoiding it. Corruption Currents is written by Christopher. M. Matthews and Sam Rubenfeld and edited by Nick Elliott.

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